Wednesday, July 20, 2011

From Ugliness to Beauty





















Can you believe this footpath was a stinking mucky place with rotting garbage, until a few weeks ago?(Click on photo to enlarge)


In case you were not following them on Facebook, the Ugly Indians (an anonymous group of people like you and me, with full-time jobs) cleaned up that nasty stinking garbage pile + public urinal (wall) in front of Bishop Cotton Girl's high school, on Residency Road. You will now find a garden where the dump was, and working urinals that people use - and little kids can go to their school vans without walking through stinking muck/walking right in the heavy traffic, to avoid the smell. I went to see it for myself yesterday.

These people contacted the BBMP, got the garbage collection to be moved to a better location, cleaned up the dirt themselves (yes!), got the urinals fixed again, painted and planted with the help of the public/schoolkids who were willing to help.

You have to see the videos to believe this!  (And they have good/funny music to go along with them too)
You can start from Part 6 if you don't have the time, it summarizes the Before Cleaning part too:

The whole series is here.

The work is still going on - but what they have achieved is just mind-blowing. A huge lesson in what we can do, if we get together - one thing we have in plenty is manpower, right? :)

What you can do (message from the Ugly Indians)
  1. Stop being cynical and believe it is possible. 
  2. If you want to make a difference to your surroundings by taking ownership of the problem and seeing it through, these videos may help you. Or write to theuglyindian@gmail.com and they will help you. (We consult with many people to help fix dumps near their house) 
  3. If you want to show your support Bangalore CBD Area, you can adopt a tereBin at a location of your choice. We will soon put up WonderLOOS for adoption too. 
To know the whole story, see the other posts here, or click on The Ugly Indian label below this post.

For any doubts, contact them directly: theuglyindian@gmail.com

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